Hybrid Bus Charging Technology Trial Kicks Off In London

A good city is one where it has all of the necessary infrastructure to get it going, and that includes an efficient public transport system to handle the huge number of commuters who go to work and return home to the suburbs in the same day, not to mention having plenty of tourists who would want nothing better than to soak in the entire atmosphere. Having said that, it looks as though the public transport network in London is slowly but surely getting more advanced, with Transport for London (TfL) having deployed 800 hybrid and a bunch of all-electric buses on the capital’s streets already.

However, there is one particular issue that needs to be addressed, and that would be ensuring that these all-electric buses would have an adequate amount of juice to ferry people all over the place, especially when one has to take into consideration the distance of the depot. To make sure that they run as efficiently as possible, TfL has initiated a brand new trial which would feature inductive charging stations being implemented across four east London bus stops, so that the Enviro400H E400 hybrid buses can juice up its exhausted batteries wirelessly as they pick up passengers.

This charging system will be first tested on its electric hybrid buses that ply route 69 from 2015 onward. Apart from that, the trial will give additional insight as to whether wireless charging works for buses that is jam packed with tourists all the time. [Press Release]